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DENVER POST: Members of a task force proposing regulations for recreational marijuana in Colorado approved recommendations Tuesday that would allow for marijuana tourism but block out-of-state pot shop owners. The Amendment 64 Implementation Task Force voted to allow people from outside of Colorado to shop in forthcoming retail marijuana stores, although the amount they could purchase at any one store would be limited. The goal is to prevent “smurfing,” which would occur when one person goes from store-to-store accumulating marijuana to then sell into the black market. The thinking is that lowering the amount of marijuana an out-of-stater could buy in any one store would make smurfing too time-consuming to be worthwhile. MORE

RELATED: President Obama’s drug czar told a Canadian magazine recently that the federal government would still go after Marijuana growers and distributors, despite the recent ballot initiatives that decriminalized marijuana usage in those states. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said he opposed state-based efforts to legalize marijuana. “I think a patchwork of policies would create real difficulties,” he said in an interview with Maclean’s. “I don’t see the legalization of drugs and making them widely available as a good thing.” When asked whether drug legalization was similar to gay marriage—in that many states were passing laws in favor of it, despite continued federal opposition—Kerlikowske replied that the two issues have nothing in common. “I don’t look at marijuana as a human right, or a civil right, or even in the same venue as gay marriage,” he said. “This is a Public Health issue.” MORE

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Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 at
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